


Eclipse

by Sealgirl



Category: Ironside (TV 1967)
Genre: Gen, Incomplete, fragment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sealgirl/pseuds/Sealgirl
Summary: ONESHOT - The Chief, Ed and Fran survive a botched undercover operation, but their escape comes at a price (Story fragment)





	Eclipse

**Author's Note:**

> Notes - This was originally published on my livejournal in December 2008 as a Christmas present for Julie_O, and is based on a scenario she suggested. 
> 
> This is a one-shot, and only a *fragment*. I don’t intend to write any more so it’s not going to be updated (I might use bits of it in something else, but that’s different!!).  
> I don’t usually publish fic that are incomplete in open archives, but I thought it would be fun to publish this at ff and AO3

The rain poured down in torrents but Fran and Ed kept walking through the wilderness and in his chair, Ironside sat being pushed along. Footsteps sloshed through the puddles, punctuating the steady whirr of the wheelchair’s wheels as Ed pushed. Far off, in the distance there was the low rumble of thunder. The day was growing darker by the second and they still had to find some sort of shelter.

  
Fran tried not to let her worry show, but all three of them were aware that they had a next to impossible task. They had already been walking for almost an hour, and they had found nothing to give them shelter.

  
It had happened so quickly, she wasn’t even sure exactly what had happened, one moment they were undercover, and everything was going according to Ed’s plan. The next moment there was gunfire, and the whole room had erupted with violence. Faced with an unknown number of armed men, they had done the only thing they could do: they ran.

  
There was no time or spare energy for questions, and at the moment Fran wasn’t going to ask any either, as the tension between the two men was so thick she barely dared to breathe. But whatever had happened didn’t affect what was going on right now. They had to keep on walking, and they had to find shelter as soon as they could. Fran looked up to Ed as he walked in silence. He looked like he had just climbed out of a pool, his shirt stuck to his body, his normally perfect hair was plastered down. But for the serious look on his face she would have said something. The cut on his cheek looked like it was still bleeding, but it was difficult to tell with all the rain. Earlier, Ed had insisted that she take his coat, to keep the worst of the rain off. Her eyes drifted down his soaked, discoloured shirt to the holster at his hip and his gun. Her frown grew deeper.  
  
Suddenly, lightning flashed and there was a peel of thunder a few seconds later. The storm was getting closer.

‘We have to find shelter soon,’ said Fran anxiously. ‘The rain’s going to get worse.’

‘We will,’ Ironside said firmly. ‘We will.’

She looked between the two men on her right. Ed was shaking with cold and the rain, Ironside wasn’t that much better, stuck at the mercy of the elements fixed in his wheelchair. But there was nothing she could do but keep on walking and hoping they would find something soon. Like this, pushing a man in a wheelchair, they were desperately obvious to anyone who followed them.

They kept on walking for another ten minutes.

‘I think I can see something,’ Ironside said suddenly. He pointed and Fran felt a surge of relief. It wasn’t much of a building, but Ed changed direction slightly, moving in a curve in the direction Ironside had indicated.

They drew closer and the fleeting hope that Fran had felt faded. It was little more than a shack. She looked again to the Chief.

‘At least it has a roof,’ Ironside said.

‘It’s the best we can do,’ said Fran as brightly as she could. She looked around at Ed with a small smile, but Ed didn’t look back at her. He wasn’t listening, so completely focused on keeping himself walking and pushing that he wasn’t aware of anything else. And that worried Fran, but she couldn’t put her finger on why.  
  
It took them almost five minutes to reach the building, even when they sped up. The lightning was coming closer and the rain heavier than before. Inside was just as bad as she’d anticipated, with a couple of dilapidated beds, a table thick with dust, and a few broken shelves. Fran found some towels and a few tatty blankets hidden at the back of a cupboard, and handed them out to Ironside and Ed. Then she slumped down to sit on the edge of the closest bed. There was silence while Ed slowly searched the building and checked out their supplies, saying nothing as he looked. Ironside hunched down in his sodden chair, looking furious.

At last, Ed stopped and leaned against the wall near the small bed, just beside Fran with his eyes closed. She could hear his heavy, stilted breathing and for a moment, he looked like he was going to tip over sideways. But then Ed opened his eyes, staring directly at Ironside with an uncompromising expression on his face.

‘There’s no food,’ he said, sounding as if he had to force the words out. ‘No power, no phone line. No fuel for a fire either.’

‘And what good would a fire do?’ asked Ironside curtly. ‘Other than to signal our presence?’

There was a long silence, and Fran glaned between the two men, her chest growing tighter with anxiety as the silence stretched out. Ed and Ironside continued to glare at each other.

‘I know what you’re going to say, Chief,’ Ed said at last.

‘Oh, so you do, do you, Sergeant Brown?’ hissed Ironside.

Ed drew a quick breath.

‘This was not my fault.’

‘And just who’s fault was it then, Ed?’ snapped Ironside. ‘You were in charge, it was your responsibility.’

Ed looked away, his lips pressed tightly together. Fran saw he was shaking.

‘Are you trying to tell me you weren’t in charge, Sergeant? That you didn’t know what was going on?’

‘I checked before we went in there,’ he said.

‘And did you double check?’ Ironside demanded. Ed didn’t answer. ‘Well, Sergeant Brown? Did you?’

‘No.’

Ironside’s glare grew more ferocious, but Ed still looked away. His eyes were half-closed and there was a deep frown on his face. His hand gripped the bed so tightly his knuckles were white. At last, Ed turned to look at the Chief, his face paler than moonlight, but when he opened his mouth to say something only a quiet breath came out.

‘Ed?’ This time, the Chief’s voice was full of concern.

Ed swayed then suddenly his knees buckled. Fran was up by his side in a moment, taking hold of his arm, but he continued his downward slide towards the floor. Fran stepped to one side, dragging Ed with her and he collapsed awkwardly on the narrow bed. He didn’t move.

Fran looked to Ironside, who was looking as shocked as she felt, and then back to Ed.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

Ironside shook his head, just looking down in confusion at his sergeant.

Carefully, Fran moved Ed’s limp legs up onto the bed and gathered some blankets to cover him. As she pulled the blanket up over his chest, Ironside stopped her.

‘No,’ he said. The Chief was pointing to Ed’s left side, where his wet shirt was dirty. It had been the side that had taken the brunt of the force as he’d struck the table during the short but vicious fight earlier. She couldn’t understand what was wrong to begin with, but then as she looked more carefully, she realised that it wasn’t dirt on his clothes. As gently as she could, she pulled his soaking shirt out from the top of his pants and undid the lower few buttons, revealing a darkening bruise the size of her hand just below his ribcage on the left side. All around it the skin was red.

She looked to the Chief, hoping that he could say something reassuring, but the look on his face filled her with fear.

‘Chief?’

‘His ribs might be broken,’ the Chief said quietly. ‘There’s probably internal bleeding. He might be going into shock.’

Fran closed her eyes, remembering the look on Ed’s face as they’d walked. He must have been in terrible pain the whole time.

‘Why didn’t he say something?’ she said, her voice shaking.

Ironside didn’t answer; there was no need to, as they both knew that without Ed they couldn’t have got away. Telling them would have been pointless, as neither could do anything to help.

‘We’ve got to get him out of here,’ said Fran. ‘He needs a doctor, if he’s bleeding inside, he could die if it’s not stopped.’

She picked up his wrist. His pulse was faint but racing along at a hundred beats per minute, and she was very aware of the cold of his skin. She reached up to brush some of the wet hair away from his eyes. His forehead was cool to the touch as well.

How could this have happened? she wondered. Fran thought back to the little she’d seen of the fight in the warehouse. Ed had struck the table hard and tipped it over, landing heavily. He’d lain still for a few moments afterwards. Fearfully, she reached forward, running her fingers through his wet hair along the side of his head. Sure enough, there was a lump the size of a golf ball on the left side.

Fran slowly shook her head. How he had managed to stay standing long enough to get them here was amazing. Her hand trailed down over his cheek and the shallow cut there that had finally stopped bleeding.

‘Was it his fault, Chief?’ she asked in an angry tone. ‘Really? Or are you just looking for someone to blame?’

Ironside didn’t answer, but just looked to the figure lying on the bed and expression of sorrow and fear on his face that she had never seen before.

‘I’m sorry, Chief,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

Ironside took her hand, squeezing it tightly.

‘They are looking for us,’ he said. ‘Both sides of this mess. And Mark isn’t going to know where we are.’

Once more, Fran looked to Ed as he lay peacefully on the bed, and her heart gave a slight, unexpected lurch. He had been there so often for her, whenever she needed him, Ed had always been there, even when she’d made it deliberately difficult.

Eventually, she looked around at Ironside.

‘Chief? What are we going to do?’ she asked.

Much to her dismay, the Chief shook his head.

‘I don’t know.’


End file.
